Objectives:
This community-based Diabetes Self-Management Education (DSME) program endeavors to help people with diabetes in the Philippines acquire the knowledge, self-care practices, and attitudes required for the effective management of diabetes. It offers culturally-appropriate, cost-effective, and comprehensive diabetes care by using locally modified educational materials and tapping support from barangay health workers (BHW). This pilot study is part of a long-term, self-sustaining diabetes program which aims at reducing the burden of diabetes by improving physiologic and behavioral parameters. It aspires to be a “model of community diabetes care” throughout the country, ultimately attenuating disparities in health outcomes for underserved Filipinos in the rural community.

Main institution: University of the Philippines – Philippine General Hospital

Principal investigator: Elizabeth Paz-Pacheco

Location of the project: Philippines

Amount allocated:
USD 25,244

Date: June 1, 2008 - December 31, 2010

Impact of the project: Modules developed by the IDF Consultative Section on Diabetes Education (DECS) in 2002 were translated into the Filipino language by a bilingual translator from the Center of the Filipino Language (Sentro ng Wikang Filipino) of the University of the Philippines Manila. The translated modules were modified according to the participants’ level of knowledge and were used for the diabetes self-management education program.
The project team works with the Philippine Society of Endocrinology and Metabolism and partners on various regions of the country, through their diabetes education programs, to promote and direct stepped care approach (as modeled from Phases I, II and III) in representative communities in the country.

This project team is now piloting it in several communities in the Philippines.

Presentations and publications:

Abstracts/posters:

20th World Diabetes Congress, Montreal (Canada), October 2009

Philippine Society of Endocrinology and Metabolism, January 2010

14th International Congress of Endocrinology, Kyoto (Japan), March 2010

BRIDGES (Bringing Research in Diabetes to Global Environments and Systems) is a programme initiated by the International Diabetes Federation[4], and supported by an educational grant from Lilly Diabetes.